Chennai, NFAPost: Global SaaS technology company headquartered in Singapore and India, Anchanto, has received new funding as part of its ongoing Series C round, totalling S$16.6 million raised till date.
Taking part in the funding round were Asendia, a joint-venture of the French National Post La Poste and State-run Swiss Post, and MDI Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Indonesian telco firm Telkom Indonesia.
Anchanto will use the funds to strengthen its research and development portfolio to launch two new products, build data platform and expand to three more markets. It will also invest in hiring skilled talents to enhance and accelerate the launch of its new products into markets – especially with the demand for SaaS solutions on the rise.
The company has a strong presence in Pune and has plans to further strengthen its teams through strategic new hires. It helps Brands, e-Distributors, ecommerce enablers, Retailers, Third-party logistics providers, SMEs, Warehouses and Postal Associations, streamline and manage highly successful end-to-end ecommerce operations.
This global crisis has witnessed profound changes in the ecommerce and retail landscape. However, Anchanto has managed to keep scaling and turned profitable establishing its strong business focus and acumen in the industry.
“Achieving profitability in these times is an excellent performance; I feel this is a more significant achievement than raising $12 million in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis. We are a capital-efficient company. Almost 100% of our revenue comes from a SaaS subscription with a high gross margin; we do not buy inventory or run services shops or warehouses,” said Anchanto CEO and Founder Vaibhav Dabhade.
“It took strong resilience, deep understanding of product design, engineering, marketing, sales, account management, and solid teamwork across seven countries to reach here,” he added.
This round also marks the start of Anchanto’s partnership with Asendia, a European cross-border ecommerce shipping and mail services giant, as a new shareholder. Aligned with Anchanto’s approach to raise funding from its key customers, Asendia is the fourth customer to turn into a shareholder after MDI (Telkom Indonesia), Transcosmos Japan, and Luxasia.
MDI Ventures is a corporate venture capital initiative by Telkom Indonesia, which increased its stake further by adding
to its existing investment. Marc Pontet, CEO of Asendia, and Donald Wihardja, CEO of MDI Ventures will be joining Anchanto’s board.
“Asendia intends to continue its journey along the cross-border ecommerce value chain and support the growth of an innovative technology company serving the international growth of global brands. We have high hopes for further cooperation with Anchanto and we expect that we are going to create additional growth and synergies for the company, thanks to our logistics and technology capabilities,” Asendia CEO Marc Pontet.
As of last year, Anchanto’s platforms have helped streamline the ecommerce operations of more than 12,000 business and sellers consisting of over 300 global enterprises. Anchanto’s customers manage over 67 million stock keeping units (SKUs) and 115 million listings, and have processed a combined Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of nearly $2.71 billion through their platforms.
Sellers process over 4 million orders per week on Anchanto’s systems, averaging at 1.6 order processed every second. Approximately 13 million API calls are triggered from the SelluSeller platform every single day. During peak seasons, this
increases up to around 27 million API calls per day.
Anchanto currently serves a customer base comprising global players (including three Fortune 500 companies) such as Nestle, Pos Malaysia, GreatDeals, Luxasia, DKSH, DHL eCommerce, Bench Retail, MYDIN, and more. Having established a strong foothold in Southeast Asia, Anchanto has recently expanded into the Korea and ANZ region and will be looking to explore other markets within the greater Asia-Pacific region and Europe in the future.
